Green Briar Shore- Combs (AR) 1958 Parler D
[Ozark Folksong Collection- Reel 241 Item 2. Collected by James Ward Lee and Ralph E. Roberts for Mary Celestia Parler. Transcribed by James Ward Lee and Ralph E. Roberts
Parler collected at least three version of the Bold Soldier (The Soldier's Wife) and she and her assistants collected a number of varinats of this branch of The Bold Soldier, titled usually red River Shore. It ends with the floating verses found in Wagoner's Lad.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Green Briar Shore- Sung by: Martha Hawkins Combs; Arkansas, July 26, 1958.
At the foot of yonders mountain,
Where fountains doth flow,
I spied a fair damsel,
On the Green Briar shore.
I courted that damsel,
Through all wit and skill,
I courted that damsel,
Through love and good will.
I courted that damsel,
Full six months or more.
And I was forced to go and leave her,
On the Green Briar shore.
I hadn't been gone long,
When the letter was sent,
In the midst of that letter,
These words they were spelt.
Come back my own true love,
For you I adore,
And I will go with you,
From the Green Briar shore.
And when her own parents,
Came this for to hear her,
They thought they would deprive her,
Of her own dearest dear.
They collected an army,
Full twenty or more,
To fight her own true love,
On the Green Briar shore.
He took out a sword,
And it glittered all around,
In a short length of time,
Some fell dead on the ground.
Oh, some he killed dead,
And some he wounded full sore,
And he gained his own true love,
On the Green Briar shore.
To hard is the fortune,
Of all woman kind,
They're always controlled.
They're always confined.
They are controlled by their parents,
Until they are made wives,
And they are slaves by their husbands,
For the rest of their lives.